162 Transactions.—M iscellaneous. 
kumaras and fern-root. Ah, he exclaimed, it is from her inside that our - 
food comes, so the old waiata says: 
** Descended from the back, the great root of Rongi, 
Descend from behind, the fern-root, 
Descend from the front, the kumara, 
By Huruki and Pani, 
Then it was nourished in the mound, 
The great mound of Whatapu, _ 
Great mound of Papa, 
Great mound of Tauranga ; 
There was seen the contemptuous pikari of Tu, 
There they were hungered after,” ete., etc. 
Alarmed for the safety of their children, Huruki and Pani bid them hide 
themselves; and so Papaka-fern went to the mountains, Kohuruhuru-fern 
went to the forests to listen to the songs of the birds, Taroa-fern went to 
the sea-shore to listen to the trampling of the surf, and Papawai-fern went 
to the river-bank to listen to the eels flopping at night in the water. 
From the ancient waiatas we learn, that Toi taught people to eat fern-root 
and the stem of the ti palm; hence the proverb, ** Te kai rakau a Toi" :— 
That Rongo-i-tua introduced the kumara :—and that Tukete in his canoe, 
Huruhuru-manu, (bird-feather) achieved the reputation of being, like Kupe 
and Tamatea, a great navigator. 
Tue Lecenp or Tama-rea, Pokar WRHENUA. 
(Fair Son, the Cireumnavigator) 
Tama-tea, being deserted by his three wives, Hine rau-kawa-kawa, Hine 
rau-haraki, and Te-kohi-wai, sailed all round the island in search of them. 
And he shares with Kupe the credit of giving names to the various places 
along the coast ; the promontory at the base of the On-Lookers, for instance, 
is known as the Koura fire of Tama, he having landed there to cook craw- 
fish. On reaching the southern extremity of the island, he continued his 
voyage up the west coast. At the entrance to every inlet he waited and 
listened for any sound which might serve to indicate the whereabouts of 
the runaways. But it was not till he arrived off the mouth of the Arahura 
river that he heard voices ; he immediately landed, but could not discover 
his wives, being unable to recognize them in the enchanted stones which 
strewed the bed of the river, and over which its waters murmuringly flowed. 
He did not know that the canoe, in which his wives eR ae had capsized 
at this spot, and that they and the crew had been chang to blocks of stone. 
Accompanied by his servant, Tamatea proceeded inland towards Mount 
Kaniere; on the way they stopped to cook some birds which they had killed. 
While preparing the meal the slave accidentally burnt his finger, which he 
